HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Two championship rings and near universal acclaim as the most skilled big man in basketball still haven’t silenced the most vocal faction of critics of Lakers All-Star power forward Pau Gasol.

The “soft” label is still being tossed around liberally by Gasol’s NBA peers, and that includes both Amar’e Stoudemire and Kendrick Perkins, players that Gasol’s Lakers vanquished on their way to the their second straight title last season.

Stoudemire brought it up again at a recent public appearance (caught on YouTube above) at Foot Locker. And while he deserves credit for qualifying his slight and insisting that Gasol is a “good player,” enough is just about enough with this soft stuff.

392 Comments

I’m a big Lakers fan, but I can honestly admit that Pau Gasol is soft. There’s no denying it; sure he’s skilled and can score and rebound and play very good defense consistently, but to be called “soft” means you don’t have the NBA-level aggression, and Pau Gasol does not have that. That’s why Andrew Bynum is such a big force for the Lakers this year, it takes a load off of Gasol, because he can go out every night and defend big guys like Perkins, Stoudemire, Howard, or as showcased tonight, Lamarcus Aldridge. Pau Gasol is very skilled in the game of basketball, don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day he’s not the physical center you want on a championship team. He is more of a power-forward because he is so versatile.

well amare has no reason to call pau gasol soft if he doesnt have a ring and hey couldnt even lead the suns to a championship with a great point guard like steve nash they shoulda made it to the nba finals but amare is to soft he cant lead a tem like kobe fisher and gasol can gasol a 7 foot monster can hit from all distance if he wanted to three point range close range but i gotta agree a little gasol has not been agressive last year but u cant lie he tooken a huggeeeee!! step foward on the agressive side and amare win u championship u can talk all dat stuff u want but till then stfu and worry about your own team

First off….Lakers were number one in the west PRIOR to the Gasol trade, so for people trying to make it seem like Kobe was lost without Pau or battling for an 8th seed…..you are completely wrong…..having said that, he is the piece that would put us over the hump eventually…

And yes I agree…hard or soft doesn’t matter…skill does. I’d rather have Pau Gasol than Ben Wallace, wouldn’t you?

lol…i dun believe you guys are trying to debate over amare’s comment but since people are my views…pau v/s amare. i take gasol anyday…firstly i dun think he is soft …if he looks soft….who gives a dammm…i mean id have an ugly m*f* on ma side if i was gettin into a fight …not a game. secondly i think a majority of people would select pau over amare on their side. i’d choose talent over soft or hard lol…..which is clearly pau gasol.

Hey guys… Im a fan of Dallas Mavericks… We dont know what will happen in the play-offs, they were all great teams.. we will see… but my team is striving hard… as chandler and kidd is preparing for the play-offs.. I LOVE THIS TEAM..

Ah!!!! all I can say is if the Lakers should three peat? It’ll keep ya’ll mouth shut! Regrets do come in the end and BTW Amar’e is just envious to Pau. Pau became a Great player and Stoudemire still cannot even get the things straight in New York with Melo. Kendrick Perkins? Your just another post defender not a great player. For the Miami Heat? FACT: the Cavs last season swept the Lakers in the season series yet they cannot even get into the finals. Season series is just an overrated thing during the NBA season. Playoffs is a thing that do COUNTS, so keep Ya’ll mouth shut! and yeah how many rebounds did Pau got during last year’s game 7 vs the Celtics? Now Label that SOFT. Sorry to Garnett who is a former MVP, NBA Champ he did got owned by Gasol during the series and he only got 3 rebs what a shame.

And where was big bad Amare in the Conference Finals Last year? He averaged 6 rebounds in that series and he calls Pau soft? wow. this guy needs to learn how to shut his mouth because he just makes himself look stupid by always running that funky mouth of his. For somebody who plays no defense and looks like a retard trying to play defense, he sure has a lot to say when he is one of the worst defensive players in the NBA. Not only is amare soft on defense he is DUMB too.

Just wanna say tuned in… talking bout curry as such pure shooter …he is but comon nobody really talks of the realll pure shooters may i submit my man cazzie russell the man could shoot not a good defender but if he made one he’d make ten in a row… also kudo’s to reggie for mentioning the pure shooter ” the Rifleman” Chuck could put the ball in the hole; so love the game .. became a total fan when the lakers moved here in 60 \
a short white guy

Winning a championship is not about one player, it’s about teamwork and chemistry. Ok, let’s say Pau is soft, but when put together with a Bynum, Artest, Fisher, Odom, and Bryant makes one strong bond.

Wow…I don’t get it. You just can’t please some people. 2 time World Champion, often called the most skillful big man on the game and someone who averages a double-double. And you’re still called soft. What does it take guys?

GASUL Doesn’t want to be sidelined most of the season like [BYNUM, KG(last seasom), PERK, STUDAMIRE(when hes still in the suns),the 2 O’NEALs, BOOZER, and other big man in the league] thats why he seldom play agressive at the paint… THATS THE FACT!!!!

If Pau is soft how come he is the ONLY PF that plays both as a PF and a Center? Remember whenever Andrew Bynum is out the Lakers starting five is Gasol at Center and Odom at PF..Now I ask this, do Amare Stoudemire, Kevin Garnet, Tim Duncan dare to play as Center for the entire ballgame and bang bodies with the likes of Gortat, Howard, Yao Ming, Bynum, T. Chandler, Perkins, Shaq Oneal, and all those big bodied Centers? You answer this question and you will find out who is soft and who plays tough..

First off, 98% of you idiots don’t even know what context the soft label is being thrown in, as evidenced by the idiotic “thug” and “ghetto” comments. When people call Gasol soft they’re not saying he can’t street fight or he doesn’t brag or act brash enough. They’re saying he gets pushed around inside, which he does, and that he’s more a finesse rebounder than a power rebounder, which he is. WTF is the problem? It’s a fact. It doesn’t make him a bad player or detract from what’s he and the Lakers have accomplished over the last few years. Gasol is a very skilled player, nobody is taking that away from him. Not everybody is a tough, gritty player. Not everybody has to be. Some of you idiots reveal even more of your ignorance with equating “toughness” with being non-skilled or belligerent…you’ve obviously never played any competitive sport of any sort.

Having rings, winning x amount of games in a row, having an impressive stat line…all good things, but they have nothing to do with softness or toughness. You can have all have all those things and still be a “soft” player…like Gasol. That’s not a bad thing, that’s his game. I’m sure he doesn’t need all of you fans whining in his defense about him not being soft, that’s kind of counter-productive. So stop throwing all that crap out there as reasons why Gasol “can’t be soft”, its asinine and is not a very good look at all. Calling anyone who offers what they feel is an honest criticism of your favorite team or players a “hater” is even moreso and makes you all look even softer and more cry baby’ish than Gasol is.

And did somebody say nobody can beat the Lakers without the refs? How many times did the Lakers get to the line in the fourth quarter in game 7 against the Celtics last year? More than the Celtics went the whole game, wasn’t it?

when you lost to someone, you get insecured. you’re starting to hate thats why perk and amare are now talking trash. perk is a tough guy but amare? hell no. look at him now. setting on jump shots. he lost his explosiveness. coz mostly he’s relying on the point guard on which nash and felton is doing best.

Did you really have to include “shirtless artest flexing his muscles” ? Anyway, I agree with KP, Pau Gasol is soft. But wait, Amarie(only spelled it that way because I don’t have the little hyphen thingy) is not one to talk. He is soft too. The only person that deserves to say this is Kendrick Perkins, because in 2008, Kendrick man handled Pau and it was paunful to watch, if you get what I mean. Pau is a really great offensive FORWARD! He sucks at center.

i guess amare was trying to audition for the lakers anext season by proving he is tough. i tell you what,that is a good move that will never come true.just stay in the big apple and just dream of having a ring.

“I don’t get this argument. I’m a Celtics fan but I don’t see any point in discussing whether Gasol is soft. Gasol’s style of play is suited for the Lakers and that’s that. Back to back championships proves this.

Now whether this style of play would be successful again, will have to wait till June. Hopefully Garnett and the C’s Bigs will be more than enough for the Lakers. Burt one things for sure, this will be one hell of a series.

One thing i find funny though is that the soft comment comes from Stoudamire. A guy just about scores and does nothing else. For me toughness is more about defense than offense, and if this is the case then Amare has no right calling anybody soft.”

Well said Orex. Gasol’s toughness or lack thereof is a moot point considering how great of a fit he is w/ the team he plays for. And I think that is one of the main points of this article. I guess we can’t completely blame Amar’e and Perkins for missing this concept, considering neither went to college nor acquired many reasoning skills along the way (mostly in regard to Perkins, that man is just plain dumb. Amar’e was prompted to answer a specific question about Gasol’s “soft”nature). Both resort to simple minded, irrelevant insults.

this comments are hilarious, for a guy like me who grow up wathcing 80s and 90s basketball, all this players are just whiney teenagers, Who’s amar’e stoudemire, he’s not tough, he can’t even defend, he gets trashed by every skilled big man in the league because he’s too lazy to give any opposition. i would love to see cry babies like perkins or stoudemire playing against guys like parish, rodman or bill laimbeer.

After seeing some comments, I got curious to see what LA’s record was prior to Gasol trade and how good or bad they were. Here is what I found:

“The Lakers were one of the NBA’s best teams before the 20-year-old Bynum injured his left knee Jan. 13 against Memphis, coincidentally. Los Angeles had a 28-16 record entering Friday night’s game at Toronto but had lost five of eight since Bynum was injured.”

This means before Bynum got injured (prior to Gasol trade), LA was 25-11. If you extrapolate that to 82 game season, the record would be 57 wins. If you extrapolate the 28-16 record over 82 games, that would be 52 wins. That tells us an interesting story. Basically, after Bynum’s arrival, Lakers were already getting better but they were not a championship caliber team. They would still probably had reached the western conference finals or semifinals but wouldn’t have reached the NBA finals. They were NOT a number 8 team or anything like that when Bynum was healthy. So, yes, Gasol gave what Lakers needed but he was not the only reason Lakers were so good. It is pretty much the trio of Kobe, Bynum and Gasol and if any piece in this trip is missing, Lakers tend to struggle, which makes sense.

sometimes the most manly looking men are the ones who turn out to be gays so i don’t think it’s fair to call gasol soft or gay he’s proven time and time again how to play the game and even if he’s gay who cares people just hate him cause he’s 2 times champion without showin unnecessary agressiveness on the court goooo lakeeeeeeeeerrrrsss!!!

WTF? “I always doubt the Lakers to go all the way to the finals this season…even a lot consider them a great team, its way too far the way they play right now than the last two years..” I’m not even going to begin to get into how messed up this sentence is, let alone the fact that you doubt that a team with two hall of famers (Bryant & Gasol), the most versatile forward in the league (Odom), a guy who does nothing in the playoffs except make daggers (Fischer), and the most successful coach of the modern era (Jackson) is going to the finals in a weakened Western Conference.

People are up on the Spurs this year, but look at how the Lakers have done against the league’s best. The Lakers are pulling what the Spurs usually pull: bringing it against the best, and basically coasting against the bottom 2/3 of the league. They know they can win anywhere, anytime, just like the Spurs and Celtics.

he doesn’t have to play so hard because he have lots of good support from teammates.stop talking amare coz u don’t have champinship ring yet. we have to accept that lakers will be going to the nba finals this season.”LESS TALK LESS MISTAKE”

yeah right enough all of the talking.. let’s just see who are the soft one’s criticizing other players like pau isn’t the best thing to give you a win in your team let’s say amare is tough but how tough is he when the game goes to wire to wire, i bet dwight will knock him off insade the paint..lakers are doing as of late and i know they will win 3peat.. let’s face the fact that pau plays that way he is and other player have that different moves that they are comfortable.. LET’S JUST WAIT WHO IS GOING TO SHUT HIS MOUTH WHEN WE WON THIS YEARS CHAMPIONSHIP ONCE AGAIN…JUST LIKE PHIL SAID…

sometimes having brains is better than being hard. gasol has proven that he has the mental IQ while perkins and amar’e has always proven the adage all brawn no brain. that is why they are jealous of what gasol has accomplished

I think you people are confused Perkins didn’t call Kobe soft he said Kobe trys to make Pau tough but he is still soft. We all know Kobe is not soft The man plays with Injuries all year long while some of these other players miss weeks from a sore wrist lmao!! Now as for Amare lol come on man I’ve seen Gasol score on him countless times I mean I would see him saying something if he could d up Gasol but that’s not the case lol and Perkins lmao he better go find a corner and sit in it as a timeout punishment for talking stupid this man won one ring and then his team ditched him like kick rocks we don’t need you anymore so he can’t be that good he sure can’t get you alot of points in the paint maybe some boards and some good plays on d but thats about it sure wouldn’t take him over Gasol on one of my drunk days!!

There are a lot of points made about LA losing and Pau being so called “SOFT”. Everyone is a power player down low… I’ll beat that when Miami get’s a big post man and wins a ring that all that Soft talk will shift to Chris Bosh because he is soft as Hot Butter. He doesn’t bang under the goal so he is “SOFT”. Come on let’s be real those to guys are just finesse players. That’s who they are. If A’mare was as hard as he thinks he is he would have beat the Lakers when he was in Phoenix but they got trampled by who Pau and the Lakers. He would’ve stayed in Phoenix if he thought he could get to the finals in the west. Chicago vs. Lakers… Great match up. I love Chicago to death but the will have a problem holding the big men from LA and Derrick will have a real tough time trying to stay in front of my boy D Rose, but the Bulls beating LA 4 out of 7 is gonna be rough. Hell that rough for any team. LA has proved that 2 years running.

Lakers, win another championship, not in another decade or 2 probably. Phil, always wanted the championship, he will retire in 3 years with no more. Bryant, is aging and slowing down, Gasol, Odom, Artest, this guys are still at the top of their game but the team will trade them soon, we are all human, so nobody’s perfect. I’m not a Bulls fan, but I can see them entering the Finals with the Spurs. For Lakers they will not past the 1st round, it’s not possible for others, but that’s their destiny this year. I admire Kobe for years, but as the saying the ball is round and bounce on different directions, so I guess It could be Bulls or the Spurs this year to win the NBA Title

L.A is my team; All day everyday. Gasol ain’t soft. He may be lanky and all but bruh gets off when it comes down to that rebound and he’s one of the BEST defenders. Yeah Kobe is awesome but w/o Gasol, where would we be? Maybe Stoudemire means he “looks” soft, but no boo, he got his life twisted. His lil ahh comments..he need to put his game where his mouth is. #norings.

Stoudimire should be the last player or Big Man to call Pau soft…….When wazz the last time Pau went through a whole game with 1 Rebound like Amare did not to long ago…..When wazz the last time when a Laker point guard had more rebounds then their big man like how chauncey did not to long ago….So Amare needs to close his mouth until he is averaging a double-double like Pau has been doing for years….Oooooo and Kendrick Perkins is garbage!!!!!!!!!

hahaha thats nice to hear from you man! anyway I dont want to criticize NBA players because they are already there but I just want them to realize what their doing is unacceptional regarding throwing some issues like that.

First off, Lakers are going to win again this year. Still when you look at the teams that will be in the playoffs, the only team that might be able to compete with the Lakers will be Chicago. Miami’s offense is still based off of three guys who are combine putting up over 75+ points a night, which the supporting cast are doing nothing. Boston is a great team but without that size of Perkins in the middle-ain’t going to happen. Western conference? Maybe OKC, but then again when you compare Lakers bigs to OKC, not going to happen. Lakers will become Champions again, you got the best 1-2 punch player of all time. About Pau Gasol being soft- thats his game, he doesn’t need to go hard at you to score on you, he can score from below and above the rim. Amare shouldn’t even be talking, he can score but as a BIG, thats not what he is in New York for, Amare doesn’t play no defense, no boards, his basketball IQ isn’t as good as Gasol. Now Perkins, he is too easy, there he is running his mouth, the guy is hurt all the time, he is a straight scrub. He does not have any foot moves, sloppy in the low post, don’t have a single tactic that he likes to do or remember, but PAU GASOL is soft. HAHA, Lakers win it again-NO DOUBT

i am true knicks fan , even through the losing. but amare cmon dont call a guy that average 10reb per game soft when u dont average 10 a game, iam not a pau or lakers fan just saying it as it is. i mean amare can do alot more rebound better and defend better. if he do this the knick will be hard to beat in the playoff.

Phil isnt full of himself. Hes the best coach thats been in the nba. EVER. He’s got a ring for every finger. He’s tamed Dennis Rodman and Ron artest. Hes coached the two greatest players to play the game and thats not a coincidence. When your that good, you can do whatever you want and he chooses not to. He coaches his players and lets the results silence the critics. (2 3 peats that help to add up to 10 championships) Also im amazed that perkins called bryant soft because kobe plays with more injurys than we even know all year round and still lights it up. Gasol is definitely not soft. He may look it sometimes but watch him play and look at the numbers and its clear, hes definiitely not soft

Prix doesn’t know anything about the LAkers strategy.Prix is a moron. NOte this, even though they loss 2 games they still ahead to their potential championship contenders the boston celtics and miami heat, I dont think bulls will advance to finals I think boston will beat them up, becuase of experience, rose is just a young man and still without a deep playoffs experience. For the LAkers it is not already an issue to them that the Spurs will have an homecourt advantage against them, becuase LAkers can beat them on the road, like what the saw last game, Lakers blowout the spurs..Lets be patient, and lets watch Kobe Bryant raising the trophy again..GO lAKers

Amare is a duche. The guy jumped on the back of Steven Nash, then when he finally got a better offer (NYK = No Defence rubbish). he trys to make a bigger name for himself by bad mouthing better players.

For anyone who doubts Gasol, you dont win Olympic medals, MVP, and NBA championships by being soft. Hey Amare or Perkins, try winning something on a consistant level before you bad mouth a star. Man, I dont even like the lakers, but you have to respect the top team at the moment. Well thats until Dirk and Dallas take over…..Come on DALLAS

its crazy that most fans call ducan and gasol soft .. but how many champion rings they got between them ?? it seems that the teams fans protect are championshipless teams lol… amar’e was so wack that he had to leave the western confrence cuz he has no hope ther of winning achampionship.. and he also need carmelo… wack ,, its sad that most of these teams need players to win and im not talking about role players.. they need lebrons… carmelos…kevein garnetts,, i have no respect for a team that cant win games with thier own players.. the spurs big three won all their rings with the same players.. thats what the rest of the nba will never have pride in.. they will always be known for is having to get star players in order to win championships.. the nba is going down the drain…. no wonder jordan said that back in the day they would never wanna play with the birds , wilkins, magics of thier era.. they would rather play against them… i dislike lomar, carmelo, k.g., lebron, amar’e because they all sold out ,, they will never be great because they abandoned thier fans and teams.. wack!!! they were’nt good enough to do it on thier original team so they had to somewhere else.. wack!! all i know is that tim duncan ,robinson, ginobili, and parker never chose to leave the spurs to win championships .. thats a luxury that miami, knicks, boston, lakers, orlandowill never get to experience…. spurs and bulls in the final.. rose for mvp… spurs win the tilte

All right, lte’s Amare explain us what it is like to be tough. He may have some different point of view when it comes to be tough. Does he mean to push somebody’s back when trying to dunk?? Bogut could tell us about it…

About Perkins, how does he even dare to criticize Pau?? This man can barely distinguish a basket ball from a potato

Some players should eat some brain so that they get some brain too. They are just envious.

Hello, i´m Driwt Howard, i remember one Playoffs, 2 years ago… sometimes dream that Gasol is in my bedroom…
Really, Gasol is hard when he want is be hard, when your team it need. Kareen knew what he said. No more tattoos evil, more basketball Amare…

Pau isnt soft, he’s a true baller. Im not that big of a lakers fan but i give credit when it’s due and if it wasnt for Pau, the Lakers probably wouldnt have had made it to the finals last year. Amare should be the last guy talking trash, cause i bet gasol would get rebounds all over him

Also, Pau could not be MVP, a bit overrated for you all, and without Kobe, face it, they can barely win a game. Sorry Lakers but if u traded Kobe right now or he got injured u would probably out of 11 games win only 1, maybe 2, Pau is not the best power forward ever existed, and certainly not the best in the NBA at this moment, I’d say 1.KG-Boston, 2.TD-San Antonio, 3. Amar’e Stoudemire-New York, then maybe Pau. Amar’e can play defense when you need him too, if u need a serious block or a serious rebound, unless there’s DW12 in the paint, Amar’e can probably get it. Pau the same too. This is coming from a serious Lakers/Bucks fan, who lives in Milwaukee. The Lakers have a “cast” team, good players witha star player, who without the star would probably barely win any games.- Rep the Milwaukee Bucks!-><-!, Sincerely KTHWI30

Yeah kendrick perkins dont have a right to be talking but i think that Gasol could definetly be better defensively this ainnt the league where yu put yur hands up and hope for the best yu either gotta really contest the shot or block it otherwise yur gonna get flown over by the elite of the league you think puttin yur hands up is gnna stop dwight howard or lebron? no of course not and as for him havin moves….. yeah i can see that but he needs to stop with the crying when he dont get calls yu cant cry till you avg 25plus ppg

Who left you limping yourself out of the NBA Finals with your tail between your legs, Perk? Amar’e got himself outplayed by Gasol in the Western Conference Finals. Also, Phil Jackson has a right to be arrogant with 11 championships, and a 48-0 record in series’ in which his team won the first game. Don’t hate a winner.

prix, Hayward is probably the best example of “Hero-to-Zero” I have ever seen. He led butler to the championship last season, now he can barely have a starting job in Utah, even when Kirilenko is injured. Gratz to that. Plus, The Lakers are 2nd in the West, the Spurs had their run, and then their skid, now the Lakers are a couple games behind. In the post-season I bet most of you that the Bulls Vs Lakers Finals will come true, yes, the Thunder and Spurs are good, but not good enough to win a 7 game series against the 2 time reigning champs. Boston will fall however, whether it’s to Miami or to Chicago, they will fall.

The lakers are lucky, celtics should be having a three peat now, If only Garnett wasn’t injured in ’09 and Perk in ’10. CMON WE ALL SAW HOW THE CELTICS DOMINATED THE LAKERS IN ’08. Its sad how injuries can really f*ck up a team. Laker fans i’ll ask you what if the Lakers were plagued with injuries too? What if Gasol injured his knee and didnt play in the playoffs the Lakers wouldnt be champions now would they?

it will be hard for the lakers this time to win another championship. they’re just so lucky in their last two championship. this time their opponent don’t have any major problem in injuries. 2009 second round playoffs. i don’t think they will beat the houston if yao ming did not got injured. they lost in game one in their own homecourt and it still goes to game 7. and in the finals damn they are just so lucky jameer nelson is not playing oh my god the luck is just coming all the way to their side. 2010 finals really will never have a game 7 if perkins did not injured boston could finished them off in game 6.

People kill me when they try to pile on someone and judge there ability. First of all, consider the source of who is calling who soft. Stoudemire won’t consistently play a lick of defense. He does not play on both ends of the floor. Have an all already game presence before you call someone else soft. An as for perkins, when you have size like he has and you can play physical you can say you’re tough but Gasol is a skilled big man. He can shot away for the basket in addition to in the paint. Not to mention his length would bother stoudemire and perkins. As for the Lakers, beat them 4 times in a 7 games series then talk. Everybody was hating on them the past two years and you see what happen. Someone commented about miami sweep the lakers this season. Please don’t tell me you’re going to use that as the measuring stick. Lebrons cavs did the same thing last year. Where did that get them? Miami, should worry about the celtics and bulls. They might not make it out the east let alone face the Lakers. Time for talking will be over soon enough. Keep doubting the Lakers. That makes their championships that much more satisfying.

Amare should say he is more physically aggressive than Gasol, not that Gasol is soft… no way you average 10 RPG and can be considered soft,… How you avg 18.8 ppg and 9.1rpg for a career and soft… Gasol lead the Grizzlies to the playoffs from 03-06 though the were swept each year… Artest is more physical than Amare and Amare know it… Its like school the tough kid picking on the quiet person…Call Artest or Odom soft… pick on another tough guy…i’d bet Gasol could probably spank Amare

I admit I used to call Pau soft, but I never knocked his skill. i don’t think Pau nor Amare are more versitile as brian scal…. errr i mean lamar odom. odom play pf when bynum was injured sometime back and during that time he avg a little more than ten rebounds. he can drive shoot and hurt you in many ways n hes tough.

I don’t like Kobe. I hated Artest but now I appreciate his effort to change his attitude. In short, I don’t like the Lakers but I don’t mind them winning it all again this season. Amar’e should stop talkin. I like how he plays but wtf.

I always thought Gasol was soft. Chris Bosh is soft too. Maybe these guys might be better off dancing ballet? As for Kobe Bryant, all of a sudden he’s been trying to play the tough, bad guy role, and he looks comical playing it. Nothing soft about Lebron, however.

Speaking of beating the Chicago Bulls… Well, the Lakers can do that because championship experience will speak for itself. The power of Laker team is in their hands no matter what it takes. About losing twice from 9 consecutive wins, does’nt matter at all. Lakers will take their 3rd championship ring this year. Kobe will be the MVP once again.

Let’s be honest,,,, Amare has a reputation for being more soft than Gasol, playing no defense(at least Gasol is a good defender).. and can’t even average more than 10 boards a season(unlike Pau). And Perkins… well listen to his interviews… at his age and the man still can’t form full sentences… sounds like an old punch drunk boxer.

i have a question for amare,can you win a championship because of your not soft that you can call pau gasol soft
even though he has won multiple championship,not like you you always get eliminated in the 1st round or 2 second
dont be a critic of somebody,first you critic ourself not WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP you are not soft by you have the tendency to be a ball hog but gasol has many moves left and right!!! AMARE FIRST WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE YOU CAN PAU SOFT COZ HAS MANY CHAMPIONSHIP RINGS!!!!

There you go again…Lakers beating the trumpet…and the rest of the fans to death with their boring boasts!
Please STOP being so obnoxious…there are too many teams out there this season that show the potential to push the Lakers over from their so called “3peat” dream…Bulls,Spurs,Celtics as always,OKC, oh please…for cryin’ out loud, The NUGGETS could beat the Lakers this season…and guess what the Lakers are gonna brand me now….a hater…did it ever occur to you folks that may be you are the haters and not the REST OF THE WORLD?!

I don’t get this argument. I’m a Celtics fan but I don’t see any point in discussing whether Gasol is soft. Gasol’s style of play is suited for the Lakers and that’s that. Back to back championships proves this.

Now whether this style of play would be successful again, will have to wait till June. Hopefully Garnett and the C’s Bigs will be more than enough for the Lakers. Burt one things for sure, this will be one hell of a series.

One thing i find funny though is that the soft comment comes from Stoudamire. A guy just about scores and does nothing else. For me toughness is more about defense than offense, and if this is the case then Amare has no right calling anybody soft.

World champion and European champion (most valuable player in both tournaments), Olympic runner, two soft NBA rings, and the third in way. Pau is not a tough guy, no need to. He is a hall of fame player.
Amare and Perkins most olvidable players

I am very far from a Lakers fan, but all these guys can do it talk. Neither of them have or will stop the Lakers. Seriously, prove he is soft by beating him. He has proven he hasn’t against these guys over and over.

amare is a hater. european ballers like gasol and dirk are on another level when it comes to skill and stuff. they just dont need to play hard. dirk would kill amare every single time in the playoffs without even going to the limit.

Phil Jackson is all about synergy & balance, Pau provides that. He doesn’t need 2 be tough, toughness is taken care of. The Lakers have a perfectly balanced team to do it all again barring injuries, The Spurs are losing games that don’t matter & OKC are a genuine threat. Amare has never even been 2 the NBA finals and doesn’t he wear a padded chest vest under his uniform?… soft?

as artest said, that’s why he has bynum, artest, barnes… as long as they keep compiling rings who in the hell cares who’s tougher! karl malone and barkley were tougher than both amare and perks and still never got a ring. so let’s the haters keep being haters while gasol keeps getting rings😛

GASOL IS SOFT!!!!!!!..did you see what the Utah Jazz did to them last night!!!! the Jazz have 4 starters injured and not playing…. could you imagine how bad the Lakers would be doing in Bynum , Soft Gasol Kobe and artest were out with injuries!!!!!!!!hahhahah softness… it would be luke Walton….Fisher…..Odom… and…Shannon Brown and ?????????DUH…LOSING!!!!!!!!hahahhahaaaaa they dont have what it takes to win it all again…..if they make it out of the west they are done the Bulls are tooooo Tough!!!

When are people gonna let go of the “Gasol is soft” crap huh? Every four years when the olympics arrive no one is calling him soft….why? Cause he is destroying us in the paint. He is often the leading scorer in international play and he badly outrebounds us……Amare is deemed as selfish often and Perkins offensive game is so trash he will never get a double double and even he has been tagged as a dirty player….When will they get rid of those labels?

Gasol soft? in his first ring, gasol left howard with a 48%FG, a guy that usually plays 60%FG, with the man only attempting 35 shots from the field the whole series. against boston last year, he averaged 12 rb per game and 2,5 blks while KG averaged 5,5 rb and 1,3 blk. 5 of those rebounds were offensive, and that in the finals vs KG, the ingelwood shouting guy, smiley Perkins and co. is NOT being soft.

Shouting and making tough faces at the camera is worth nothing when you loose. instead it is just being ridiculous.

Amare dude, you had your chance to beat the soft guy in last year’s finals. where is your ring?? lol hi hi ha ha…

the lakers were not winning anything after shaq left, it was until they acquired gasol that they became a championship team again, gasol puts them over the top the way kobe couldn’t… you can’t win championships without at least one good prescence inside on either side of the floor and gasol is that prescence and should be their mvp

Pau Gasol is not soft. He was the second leading scorer on the team both years they won the championship. You cannot average those number being soft he’s not a three point shooter he’s getting those points in the paint against the so called tough guys like Amare. Bynum was out first half of the season and he held his own. The first time they saw Boston in the finals there was no Bynum he was hurt and Gasol was the force that anchored them out of the western conference playing in a physcial western conference. The bottom line is if you hate the Lakers your going to latch on to any ridicolous idea you can find to discredit their abilities. If you hate the Lakers you quickly agree that Gasol is soft and Kobe is not the best player in the league. However, like Phil says championships keep critics silent. So when they win again all the haters will boil because their bullsh*t team couldnt be there, and thats fine but hey I am all about greatness if your great I am a fan, and regardless of what anyone says the Lakers have been a GREAT team the last four years!!!!! Oh and dont try to down play their abilities because they lose two close games back to back, there not an unproven, praying that they work together team like Miami. There a proven bunch who know they can work together and win! Lakers 2011 NBA CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ll be the first to congratulate and I cant wait for the playoffs!!! Hope Miami play the Knicks and the Knicks whop’em good. (Dont play soft S.T.A.T i like you but dont call Gasol soft and let those old crippled big men the heat have get you in foul trouble and keep you benched the whole series!)

Janderson & Milo! Why come on this site and talk about something none of us care about, every generation has there slangs and popular sayings so why diss?
You guys need to find a better hobbie then hate on change! Go walk to the toilet and bang one out you losers, or even better setup a one on one chat with each other and wank over each others great spelling and grammer haha!

You guys are both losers and no it, lets talk ball!!

As for Pau he is the man and doesn’t need to prove himself to us or those idiots, he is in the best team about to win again!

Is it a sport of basketball strength and hosts, or a sport in which wins the best? Pau is the best in his post, and people as “soft” as Amare (Amare, you’ve never been in a defensive quintet, do not talk of hardness), and would like to have the repertoire of movements that have Pau. Greetings from Spain. And remember, not Pau, not Ring. Kobe and Pau are the essence of the Lakers, the best team

Who is Perkins for say that. He´s only a center who played in Boston but what he made?. How many rebounds, blocks, points per game..?. Pau can make a double-double easy. How many centers can do that?. Last finals kobe was the MVP but the real MVP was Pau Gasol.

What the point of being soft. I prefer in my team the best players.Pau is one of the best pivot in this moment rather he is not in his best shape. Lets speak this issue at the end of play offf- PAU GASOL all the life.

And I’ve been waiting for this topic to show up because I think watching Lakers games is absolutely annoying because of how soft Gasol is.

He never commits a foul, but he is always fouled. He isn’t a physical player. He hides behind Bynum, Artest, Barnes, Odom, and even Kobe. I’m sometimes watching his games and I say, “You are a 7-footer! Play the game! Stop crying!” Seriously.

Again: it doesn’t mean he is a bad player. I actually believe he is the difference between the Kwame Brown era in LA and the… well… Pau Gasol era. He is extremely skilled and smart. But he is still soft, and it annoys me to watch him play.

Yeah you are right, just wait until the finals and you will see the Gasol “the softy” playing at full power..
I recommend you and to all wankers whom say such tard things, to review the past Finals 7th game..and then think again about it

I don’t hate Gasol or anything. I think he is the opposite of KG but in a positive way. Sure, he won’t go crazy on people, but he would still be a guy I’d like to have on my team. KG is crazy and all and it’s annoying for some fans, but they would probably like to have him on their team because he helps them win games.

Amare is the gayest basketballer in the championshio , Overrated and has not friend. Pau is a master for Amare. At age of 18 Pau was winning championship with Barcelona Basket team , he has named MVP in a World Championshio.ANd several times MVP of European Players. There are a few player with the wide CV of Pau. Chmapinship in Europe championschio in Nba. Olympic medal wrld championshio. MvP . think the tougness or softness has nonsense in the ay to value a Player. He is smart, and skillfull. There are not estadistics to number the goo game that pau make. And overall he is a team mate. , humble and solidarity that mahe his partners better. PAu all the life. Amare jelus racist.

IS Amare being real!?!?! hes talking about gasol a 2 time nba champion with the lakers who will probably make the finals again this year while his knicks give up a million points a game and will be bounced in the first round. And Perkins needs to just stop and play basketball.

phil jackson 6 ring with the bulls was the toughest season ever for him.critics will say the bulls will not make it to the finals and etc. in the end the bulls won. the LAKERS will win a championship this year. MY prediction for the nba finals will be Bulls vs lakers. lakers in game 5

Even as a Laker fan, I’ve seen Pau give up on defensive plays that would matter. Best recollection was how he let D-Wade literally stroll by him in the last Heat matchup. It was much like the sometimes motionless AI behavior in NBA2K11….but to the point:

Artest and Odom are kinda right on saying Pau doesn’t have to be tough, but imagine if he was…I mean as it is, that cripple of an Andrew Bynum is really putting some back into his own game. Pau brings game, but not necessarily presence.

Pau Gasol simply doesn’t play American thug ball. He just plays without much trash talking which tends to be portrayed as “soft” in this league. It has NOTHING to do with how many rings or how well he plays as a basketball player.
On my book
Tough: Perkins, Shaq, Howard, Scola,
Soft: Gasol, Bosh, Nowitzki,

Interesting for Stoudemire to come out and call someone like Gasol soft. Put simple i would call Gasol a winner and Stoudemire a loser. I prefer a soft winner over a tough loser (although i don’t know if Stoudemire is really that tough).
Perkins? Tough guy but not much skill. If you are looking for a big that can score 20 a game and grabs maybe 10 rebounds Perk is not the guy no matter how tough he is. But Gasol can do just that.
So all that talk about tough and soft is just nonsense. How do you measure toughness? Technicals per season? How many shoving matches? To me toughness is the ability to perform under adversity. When you are physically beat up, or when you have to play in a hostile environmnet.
It is all about putting the right team together. You probably need skill AND you need some toughness on your team.

I am form argentina we dont like spaniards too much but
Gasol won:
two nba championships,
one fiba world championship, (with Spain that means not with 11 nba all stars in the rosters with you)
silver medal in olympics games (with Spain that means not with 11 nba all stars in the rosters with you)

another storie of kobe closing nothing , 6 out 18 7 turnovers, his shooting % is going down and still lakers lost for just one point , kobe is not MVP..HE IS CHOKING AT THE END, ACTUALLY A BUNCH OF BAD GAMES

ya and so what? hes entitles to bad games…hes been the league mvp for a decade. you know you’re a hater and you latch on to anything kobe fails at…guess what? jordan failed at times too. ofcourse jordan never played with close to the number of injuries kobe has, and kobe has another level to his game when the time comes. so im not worrying…enjoy it while it lasts hater. cause it wont last long

Kendrick Perkins should shut his mouth .. Hes missed a few seasons with injury and uses that as an excuse of why he didnt win ! .. Then he has the cheek to call out the lakers.. But ill tell you what perk. You forgot one name to call them .. Champions.. Something that you know little about. So you keep calling pau soft and phil arrogant all the way to your elimination in the second round ! Youll you average about 5 points a game aswell .. But dont worry bro ! Youll do it while having that badboy look on your face the whole time. Real tough !

As a knick fan, i cannot understand Stoudemire’s comment about Gasol. Amare is not the league’s toughest player and we can see that if we take a look to the rebounding leaders. He is not a great rebounder or defender. So he must try to limit up his defensive game before critising the others. If this comment about Gasol was coming out of KG’s mouth, it would be acceptable, but not from Amare.

when superstar players like gasol and kobe are being labelled different things like they are soft, they are getting old.do not be surprised.
When you reach the status of those two players there will always be people who will try to pull them down.
its the same thing michael jordan went through.
its really sad but we can not help it. there will always be people who will never appreciate the things that you have done so good.but will look at the things that are not even worth mentioning just to make them feel good about themselves.

I completely agree with you. In recent years, I have often lamented the ‘Text Generation’ . Bereft of punctuation, the Queen’s English is being reduced to mnemonics, expletives and atrocious spelling. Equally troubling is the ‘Shield of Anonymity’ that the internet provides and promotes cowards and non-thinkers alike during their anger-fueled rants.

lol…..you’re just as annoying, and you can shove that expletive up your proverbial donut hole pompous guy. ya, I didnt use proper comma spacing or syntax. my vocabulary is larger than yours, but do i care? not one iota. “the Queen’s English” LMFAO, i too wish people were more literate and aethetic with their communications, but that world is long gone buddy. get over it and learn to pursue wisdom. its much more useful and far more interesting. philosophy ftw buddy boy

Prix,do you think Jazz got any chance had player gave thjeir A game?this was a strategy,Lakers can’t catch SA anymore,2nd seed would be fine as this means an easier opponent in the first round against NO,i doubt if you are saying the same shyt when Lakers are on the roll before the Nuggets loss..

All this talk about being soft really doesn’t matter, A’mare playps great one on one, Gasol is a great player as well. Who really cares if they’re soft. They are in the NBA. Soft or not, Gasol has championships and I must admit he has plenty of help. A’mare had help too, he chose to leave, but with that being said he didn’t win any rings with them either. I’d rather be a soft winner, than a hard loser any day. Get your rings up Amare and stop worrying about someone being soft, leave that to the pillow. Real talk.

i’m not a lakers fan but i admit that Pau Gasol is a real good player, he is a much better deffender than amare and can score better than most big men in the league, perkins is a great deffender but but he can’t score like pau neither does perkins have the moves that gasol has, laker fans might talk so much about bynum or odom but it is gasol the one that brings stability to the lakers front court and in my opinion gasol is the lakers real mvp

i agree with you except for the MVP part..even with kobe’s dimished( as of lately, but not for long) game, he still our Mvp. hes the quadruple threat that all teams wish they had and is what makes us unbeatable when we are rolling. the big men help, but Kobe is the anchor. never doubt that fundamental truth

gasol is soft? yeah, so what?
i don’t like the lakers..anyway, the only reason this team is successfull is because of this soft, ugly forward.
three consectutive final appearances just because of this “softy”.
so call him how you want, look at the season results without him.he was the missed piece of the puzzle
2006-07 L.A. 42 40 .512 2nd Pacific 1 4 .200 Lost West Conf 1st Rd
2005-06 L.A. 45 37 .549 3rd Pacific 3 4 .428 Lost West Conf 1st Rd
2004-05 L.A. 34 48 .415 4th Pacific – – – DNQ

this is just what the lakers need.. amare says something like this, lakers unite and play strong.. 3rd title in as many years coming.. and what’s amare talkin about anyway? he’s not goin back to the finals anytime soon.. bosh or boozer can be the judge of gasol when they meet

How many rebounds you got against Nets last time Amare?last time i checked it’s a whopping 1 def rebound and you are acting like you are tough?WOW!Pau has more basketball IQ,array of moves than you are punk and oh before i forget,he got 2 rings,and you?

Hate the use of the word vanquished in terms of Perkins, especially since Boston won in ’08, then the Lakers won and then he got hurt in Game 7 of the finals last year. That final game could have gone either way, if it wasn’t for Perk’s injury (aka atrocious rebounding)

I think Gasol’s skills is enough to overcome the ‘soft label’. You can’t have everything. Even LBJ considered as the most complete player right now lacks something. You just need to adjust to the circumstance and if the Lakers play consistently with the way they should be playing its very hard for any team to beat them. So I think even if Gasol is soft or whatever they want to call it, the Lakers have a proven formula for the past 3 years that they can win it all. Even until now I think they can still pull it off.

What is a Kendrick Perkins?? And wasn’t he crying when he got traded from the Celery? Stop it Kendrick…you barking louder than you bite. People hyping this dude as if he a good player. Not in the least. As for A’mare, he knows what’s up. Go to the East, because your’e not coming out of the west as long as Kobe or Pau or Phil are in uniform.

Well i’ll be damn, cuz i’ve always thought Amare is the softest NBA player. I think he just covering himself up by saying that Gasol is soft. He’s funny. HAHA!!! Phoenix = poor defensive. NYKnicks = no defensive = Amare.

HAHA! Lakers lost 2 in a row and Spurs win 2 in arow. Told you tha NBA is gonna be upset Spurs will take the crown from the west and then the whole NBA. San Antonio unrated but we Love it! keep Hating on the best!! Through the regular season and through the playoffs! You knoe the Phrase. GO SPURS GO!!!!

17-3 after the break. Where was this big talk when you were getting blasted by 30? Where was this big talk when you lost 6 in a row? Now that you managed to put together two wins in a row, Lakers got 2 CHAMPIONSHIPS IN A ROW going on 3! Can you say CHECKMATE?!!

Well, I should not leave any comments to this Stoudamire movie story. Gasol is probably one of the best power forwards ever existed, He has not only won two NBA rings, but has conquered the World and European trones with Spain National Team. Just a little bit far (light years) from Stoudamire. I have read a lot of comments that support Gasol and that is how I think that the public do not eat any more of this trash talking that goes around the NBA. Thanks, and take care.

Pau soft thats rediculous. He avg. ova ten boards almost two blocks. Remember when he backed KG down in the finals and dunked on his head. Everytime gasol gets called out he responds that to me is toughness. He is mentally tougher than Amare any day. Thats why hes on the better team. Amare play defense before you call someone soft. If he is soft he wouldnt avg. 18 pts. a game. and ten boards in the western conference. Amare has never avg. ova ten boards or two blocks. I would take pau gasol over every other power foward in the league accept Blake Griffen because of his potential

$toudermoney is poet with mouth shut.
You can´t expect to much from someone that change colors for money,so easy.
Pau and the Lakers show him last year that championships comes with a team,not individually.
So again he is only playing for the crowd.Ringless as usual

Phil soft huh! for one Mr Jackson has always been able to make a winner of everyone he comes in contact with. Not to mention they werent always the easiest players to deal with or coach, so he must be tough when he needs to be and not when hes on the court in front of millions of watchers (including Amare) who are ready to lend their opinion without knowing why he does things the way he does. Phil wins championships in 3’s. Thats hard yall! Lakers are the team to beat but I dont see another team out there going 7 games with them and beating them, theres is much more to winning a ring than being tough and I can say the Lakers do not lack any of it including toughness.

Amare wants to talk about toughness? Haha…how about averaging more offensive and defensive boards first before calling a player like Gasol soft. I dont see amare doing what gasol does in the post…yeah amare throws it down hard but that dont signify no toughness

Pau may not be the most physical guy but to call him soft is absurd. 2009 Finals he plays center against Dwight Howard, without Bynum, and he averaged 18.6 and 9.2. 2010 he goes up against the Celtics he gets 18.6 and 11.6 to go along with 2.6 blocks. Perkins who calls him soft got 5.8 and 5.8 without a block in the series.

i would take gasol overamare or perkins anyday,amare plays no defense and defense wins championships,and perkins is not an offensive player all he scores are put backs on missed shots ,probably has no plays set up for him,,ny is first round loser and ok first or second round.they can watch the soft lakers win another championship lol

the power forward the lakers have ever had….I’ll take that AND day of the week….and we’re going to win a 3peat….

we always find out who’s who come playoff time……and if my memory serves me, that’s when your game is truly judged

all these cats talkin soft, either they have never won a title, haven’t been close to competing for one, and if they did, they was a role player at best……

all I know is this, when we acquired PAO GASOL, it took the league 2 years for the league to respond to that, all of the major acquisitions you’ve seen teams make in the past year and a half has been a response to this one single acquisition

LAKERS are going thru another transition phase right before playoffs start….

w/BYNUM being so dominant on the boards since all star break, everyone’s role on the LAKER’S team in terms of front court play has to be redefined, and once we establish that chemistry, then it’s lights out….

Pau Gasol plays soft and like a gentleman compared to most players on the court. He still gets 19 points and 10 rebounds a game. Bynum is the key to the Lakers winning championships in the future, if Kobe can share the ball more the Lakers have the best frontcourt in basketball and will continue to win. Kobe has lost a step and it shows how vulnurable the Lakers are when they have to carry his load.

and how you jack holes can call my team fakers when they’ve been to the finals 3 times in a row and won 2 is beyond me. we are champions, other teams need refs to beat us, thats a fact. even when we play down to their level. go back to a dark closet and pleasure yourself

other teams need the refs to beat the lakers? i don’t watch that many lakers games, but 90% of the lakers games that ive seen, the refs were helping the lakers win. but then again, if i ever showed a video clip of a foul that anyone on the lakers committed, laker fans would be in denial

Soft or not, the grammar of the comments on these comment pages cracks me up every time.

The entire lack of punctuation and misspelling of so many words makes most of these comments incredibly hard to decipher or even understand what your points are. Syntax is important young NBA fans…please learn it in school. I’m sure you are all avid fans who know the league very well…but if I can’t really understand what you’re saying, your pithy retorts are no good to us.

Somebody please tell Amare that he’s not in the big boys club yet!! Actin hard obviously isn’t what earns you a championship. Gasol has 2 in the 3 years he’s been with the Lakers. He’s a force to be wreckened with. It’s not a battle of words and physical actions, it’s a battle of points and who you score on! He’s great at that. As for Perkins, Why did someone give that fool a mic in the first place. He’s talkin about being arrogant (towards Phil Jackson) and soft (towards pau Gasol), but he came from a team (celtics) that are known for being overdramatic and crybabies. It’s a big daycare in Boston, and now he’s moved to Oklahoma where they’re a young, fast team i don’t think he can keep up with. He’s gonna suffer and get traded before he knows it. Funny how all these mediocre players and good players that are not TEAM plyers like Lebron James are tryin to clown the Lakers, but almost all of them don’t have a championship under their belt. These haters need to remember one thing……..ONLY KINGS HAVE RINGS!!!!

amare and perkins wish they had the skills of pau…he would be picked by every GM in the league before those 2 any day…pau is the most skilled big man in the game and after howard the second best overall…tell amare to grab more than 5 boards and stop some body..anybody from scoring..and perkins, how good is he when the celts decided to let him go knowing that they will be rebuilding in 2 years…so pau keep being soft and winning chips while these jealous clowns envy you from their couches during the championship.

The thing with this Lakers is that people always doubt. Then when all is said and done… their at the top of the world – champion once again. Hope they can make it to the Finals again this season, but the Spurs would challenge that. I root for Boston anyway to win it this year. Nonetheless, good luck to the Lakers!

I think Gasol is soft too… I met him once and shook his hand, man does that guy have soft hands!!!! Pau let me know your secret!

But seriously, hearing Amare call Gasol soft is like hearing a snail calling a turtle slow. Amare may be more explosive on the offensive end but he is far from tough on the defensive end. Defensively, I’ll take Gasol over Amare any day.

Who cares what Amare thinks? It is laughable for him to criticize Pau when he was completely incapable of guarding him one on one while at PHX. Additionally let’s compare rebounding numbers. Hmm, Amare doesn’t do too well there either. Like most “star” athletes, Amare has a greatly exaggerated opinion of himself. I don’t blame him for resenting Pau since the Lakers routinely snuffed PHX in the playoffs once Pau joined the Lakers. So let him whine and talk about how bad he is. Winning is the only thing that matters in sports and Amare has never won anything. ‘Nuff said.

gasol definitely has the numbers and the rings yea, but look how he gets them, his baby flops are stackin up with some of the tops in the league and he cries almost as much as baby james. if he didnt have kobe leading the way and phil being the great coach he is, hed be the same old guy he was in memphis with any other team, just another decent big man without a ring. im not taking the rings away, he and the lakers earned it, but soft fits with the amount of baby flops he does night in and night out

Yeah, but without Pau, Kobe probably wouldn’t even be with the Lakers right now and they definitely wouldn’t have won the last 2 championship. So looks like Kobe needs Pau’s baby flops as much as Gasol needs Bryant.

yeah im not sayin that it doesnt work for them, it has, they wont 2 rings together and im not taking that away, but it doesnt take away from him being soft. just because it works doesnt suddenly make him this tough guy. hes a softie

Pau is soft period! but hes still a great player that has contributed to back to back championships. He needs to put on 20-30lbs and get in the gym that boy could be a monster if he conditions himself correctly, but i think he is a batty boy so he will always be fragile. lol.

I find this chime from Amar’e to be, well frankly, comical. First of all, Amar’e is among the “softest” big men in basketball – making any attacks on fellow players’ toughness laughably hypocritical. He doesn’t average double-digit rebounds. He never has. His game is built upon the foundation of his versatility (not his toughness) – the greatest aspect of it being his jumpshot. Never has he been a scary or reliable threat on the post. No one worries about him backing down a defender and scoring. Succinctly, he’s a slightly better version of Chris Bosh that can dunk the ball a bit harder. Oh, and he’s a terrible defender. I don’t think any weakness in his game is more obvious that his defensive woes. Generally, “soft” big men can’t play defense. They can’t score on the post. They, also, are incapable of playing the center position at a high level. Guess what? Amar’e can’t do any of those things. Pau Gasol can.

This is nothing new. He has shed some of the “soft” label somewhat since the 2008 Finals when he was pushed around by KG and Perkins, but he still has his moments. However, his softness is not fully exposed on the Lakers mainly because of the presence of Bynum, who is just a huge physical presence on the court. Other teammates, like Artest, Kobe and Fisher are also tough players, but without Bynum Gasol would be totally exposed physically. And yes, I too have seen times where you see Kobe trying to get him to toughen up, but it’s just not his nature. He is still a great player and very skilled for his size.

You can’t pay any attention to some of these comments. Some people deliberately post stupid comments to solicit a response. The Lakers won’t win because they lost the last two games… that’s ridiculous. Pau Gasol solt…I don’t care who it’s coming from, Stoudemire or Perkins, that’s insane. This man has made it to the Finals for the last three years, potentially playing 110 games each year against the leagues very best, and he’s soft?… PLEASE! The Lakers are Championship pedigree, they’ll win again this year.

its comical how most people on here that talk about how hes not soft and about rings and lakers are amazing and we would sleep with the team if we could are these fake laker fans, funny how you all come out of hiding once rings are won but when shaq left and kobe couldnt carry them on his back like he was ‘able’ to do in your eyes you disappeared, your almost as bad as the montreal canadiens fans aha, and i think gasol is soft but it can be all about finesse, no says anything melo and the guy wouldnt even fight nate robinson ahahahaha now thats soft (like a foot in height advantage too)

Blah… blah… blah….
I can understand his frustrations, which caused him to talk like this. He knows it’s gonna be the Lakers that’s gonna on top this year (again), and it’s bugging the ethics out of him.
Just like some people who predicts 7 championships, even before the season starts, then cry like a baby when they can’t buy a game.
Grow up, play hard, and just hope something good comes out of it. If you’re thinking the Lakers will recruit you for talking trash about Gasol, it would be an empty Staples center before that happens.

No FAKERS FAN but I bet you did and all of the other wack fakers fan out there just like u really thought you guys would get the top seat in the west huh man my SPURS are going to make you guys cry again like we did the last time you were going to 3 peat

The Spurs? Really dude? Your team is old and washed up. Fact is, Ginobli, Parker and some of the young guys helpled the Spurs get the record the have. The young guys that have played well in the regular season wont be as spectacular in the post season, they will get shut down. So that leave Ginobli and Parker. Tim Duncan hasnt really done anything all season. And now all three of them are going into the playoffs with an injury or two and no bodoy knows who that will play out. So we will see between the Lakers and spurs who will be sent fishing.

um the last time we did 3 peat idiot… we were goin for a fourth, but thanks to a Malone injury and Shaq eating too much of his own Krispy Kremes we didnt and lost to the pistons’s…we would have been fine even then, but Paytons attitude at the end killed it all. learn something before you speak…..oh yeah like maybe fo watch .04 again? LOL we took you’re hearts like we have taken every other team’s in the league over the years. we broke the kings and made them our slaves. eat it

Even with homecourt, Spurs won’t beat the Lakers in a 7 game series! Maybe another 30 point blowout will make you see the light? Maybe you should focus on not losing in the 1st round instead of getting dismissed by the Lakers again? If winning all the rings is wack, i’ll take it? Lakers are a TRUE DYNASTY! Consecutive titles prove it, can you say the same? After another Laker championship, I wonder what your excuse for losing will be?

Phil has earned the right to be arrogant, right? Pau may be considered soft to some but whatever gets the job done. Two Championships, going for a third unless they meet the Chicago Bulls in the finals.

pau gasol is tough…er than chris bosh
dunno what the game requiring skills have to do with if pau is tough or not. amare didnt say pau doesnt have skills or that hes bad. just said hes soft. saying that its not a game about being tough is like agreeing with amare in that pau is soft

Gasol is soft but he a good big man i just think he needs to enforce his presents a little more not foul the mess out o
f them but be more aggressive than he normally is .Just block pretty much every thing that comes in the holes, dunk on a few people and call it a game. But good game man!

Gasol is soft but he a good big man i just think he needs to enforce his presents a little more not foul the mess out off them but be more aggressive than he normally is .Just block pretty much every thing that comes in the holes, dunk on a few people and call it a game. But good game man!

Lakers will not win this season?? are you guys kidding me? they just proved to you by being the best team after the all star break that they can turn in on and off whenever they choose… calling gasol soft is another hater being mad that they have NO RINGS… oh please melo come play for me and how’s that going for you amare? LA will three peat this season hands down, only team to worry about are the bulls cuz last time i checked we handed the spurs a 30 point beat down… and the thunders? oh please adding perkins won’t change anything they will be crushed just like every other team that steps in the ring with the lakers we will cruise to the finals as we always do, because even if you’re a hater you can all agree that come playoffs the lakers step their game to a whole new level so if they’re scary now ha wait till the playoffs, we slipped up with the jazz who cares, everyone needs to rest reguardless we don’t have anything to prove anymore we been back to back champions and still people wanna hate, common guys one day you’ll get a championship it just won’t be today haha 5 RINGS -> 0 RINGS!

Gasol is soft but he a good big man i just think he needs to enforce a little more no foul the mess out off them but be more aggressive than he normaly is .Just block pretty much every thing that comes in the holes dunk on a few people and call it a game

These players/people that call Pau soft are essentially saying you can be soft and play in the NBA… oh wait I am sorry, not just play in the NBA but be very successful in the NBA oh wait and not only that, be considered one of the best big men in the league today!! Are you kidding me!!?!??!

To say any NBA player is soft, is a slap in the face to the game we love! I don’t believe you can be soft and play in this league yet alone be considered in the top 5 at your position!!

This nonsense shows the jealousy and ignorance of those who speak it… If you don’t like a player just say so, if you don’t like a team just be a hater, but because a big man has skill and doesn’t have freight train players over on his way to the rim does not warrant the soft tag… if this was the case then Duncan would be have to be considered as soft as a babies bottom… watching that boring, put me to sleep bank shot of his all of these years should at least get some of you haters looking at him as being soft… how does he escape your ridicule?

All I know is Amare making these kind of statements while NY continues to lose really makes it easy to dislike the Knicks again… I haven’t enjoyed hating the Bricks this much since Ewing!

trash talk in the game like they use to….not in the press…now that SOFT. say it to a man’s face if you really need to. other than that as much as i generally like Amare, he needs to stfu or say it to his face. im sorry but there are alot more really soft players in the league than him. usually the ones with the loudest bark have the weakest bite. go chew a biscuit

Who the hell cares if Pau is soft?!! As long as his team is winning championships no one should be talking ish. This isn’t the freakin hood or watever, this is the NBA where all that matters is championships, and Gasol has 2 while Amare has absolutely none (not to mention that he’s never even come close to getting one either). You simply can’t bash a guy who’s been a key peice of the two time defending champs, b/c watever that guy is doing, IT’S WORKING.

Listen Pau Gasol is weak and I do not care what anybody tries to say. Everyone always says that Pau Gasol is better than Dirk. Dirk is ten times better than him. You let me know when he wins an Mvp (not happening). You let me know when he can win a championship without stars on his team. Dirk had no help when he led the Mavs to the Finals. Don’t even say Jason Terry is a star because he is not consistent. You let me know when Pau Gasol stops yelling everytime he get the ball in the post. He screams and yells when somebody barely touches him. Man up and get big Pau Gaosl. Stop whining and take the ball up strong

Dirk is a great player but a volume shooter. his frame doesnt allow him to drive consistently enough to be a top notch clutch scorer. however that being said..pau has several more dimensions to his game that Dirk. he can be a great defender at times regardless of what people say, he can post he can fade jab reverse, spin , and hit 20 footers with hands in his face. he can also dunk when he puts his mindset into it. Dirk is not as well rounded period. you cant contradict that…so sorry but you’re very wrong

COME ON MAN! Dirk is a better shooter, but Pau is better overall. How can you be 7 feet tall and NEVER post anybody up?! All he does is shoot fadeaway jumpers. That’s why he’ll never win any rings. You would think that 3 consecutive final appearances and 2 rings later that people would recognize a real player when they see one? No team has EVER won championships more than one star. Says what you want about Pau, HE’S A WINNER!

amare is better than pau the rings don’t make pau a better player his skill level is really high but if i were to pick out of them i would pick amare. Amare answered a question do you think pau is soft the majority of you said pau is soft and if he said it you question his character and still agree with him. You can’t change the fact Pau is on the Lakers or Pau was the missing link for the rings in Lakers or that ron ron, bynum and lamar is his teammates. Ask Lakers if they would give up BYNUM…Never…ask if they would give up Gasol…Never…Odom and ron ron aare on the cutting block for whoever comes in and matches their intensity but it is hard too find 2 bigs (it happened one other time spurs duncan and robinson) to compliment each others game quite like bynum and gasol (toughness and skill)

amare said it right… soft but a good player and he has help with all those 7 footers on that team. Now Kareem!! may not be “tough” although if you were old enough to have seen the dunks and the fights, battles with that boston front line etc…. but i know He’s Not Soft! – I like what ron artest said tho because amare cant rebound and he’s posing nude on magazines.. halfway homo! (no disrespect to that community) Gasol is a Highly Skilled big man on one of the best teams (thats why amare brings up his help- It Matters). Pau couldnt take memphis out the 1st round in memphis or put a team on his back like a garnett in minnesota or a Webber in sacramento or an amare in phoenix or making all-stars out of 2nd rounders winning championships like duncan…. so this ” best SKILLED big man complement is overrated to me – this is the NBA not a skills drill. Pau holds down the Lakers offense in the paint with great skills surrounded by a great team. Bynum having his back on D makes his job even easier. BuT amare cant talk about soft. Kendrick did punk him in 08 and a injury away from re-punkin him in 2010 so he cant talk about “toughness” (not skill tho)

I concur, enough is eeeeenuff. This all screams of spoiled milk to me. Why is Amare even making comments about others? his team is struggling right now to find an identity and find cohesion…that should be the focus of his thoughts and words. Sounds like a frustrated little man, everytime he goes up against LAL he gets tossed around like a ragdoll by Andrew, Pau, and Lamar. Even Ron Artest got a few licks in on him last time in LA. Pau is the perfect fit on this frontline, next to the bulldog Artest and the solid Bynum…Gasol is a skilled and lanky PF, just what Phil and the boyz needed back in 2008. Amare should be pointing his venom at Coach D’Antoni, for playing him at center and making him matchup w/ bigs like the Lakers all by his lonesome. Oh yeah, and keep your clothes on Amarea! There’s a great piece on this story on http://www.BlognBasketball.com….check it out!

Amar is a good basketball player, but he hasn’t win any ring yet! Gasol might be soft at times, but he has rings on his fingers. Amar should’t be talking about Gasol being soft because Gasol gets more blocks, rebounds, and is a lot more skill than Amar! Amar team is 7th in the East. With this record in the West, they are out of the playoffs! For Perkins, he might think he is tough, but he is not. Perkins complained to the refs a lot, so does that make him “soft”?! Perkins should not say anything about Phil because he is the best coach who has ever coached a professional sports. Lakers all the way, even though they have ups and down this season.

@prix
first of all..ibs obvious that you haven’t been watching enough basketball these past couple of weeks when the Lakers won 10 straight. give me a team right now that can say that they can beat the Lakers in a 7-game series?? you say the spurs??…the spurs are not wat they were in the begining of the season because they’re old, they’re beat up, and they cant keep up with the younger players. you also said the thunders??..you can say they improved their interior but one guy cant stop 2 seven footers..& besides..seems like OKC has gotta get thru denver first and seein the way denver has been playin..they’re on fire. and you sit here talkin about their defense??..they’ve held their opponents to 91 pts/game during their 10-game winning streak..&the only reason why its at 91 and not at 86 or lower is because of the triple overtime against the suns. go ask dallas mavericks who scores over 100pts/game..in which the Lakers held them to 82 pts in the win. so if i were you..iwould learn my facts before you came talkin about the Lakers..im just sayin..=)

Pau IS soft but he’s also pretty skilled. Right now probably isn’t a very good time for Amare to be calling him out though especially since Pau has rings and he doesn’t. I hate Pau anyway though, it makes me cringe whenever they show a closeup shot of his face.

Oh, enough already with this stupid ‘Pau is soft’ mantra! Posturing like a peacock, gesticulating like a histerical woman, and hiting yourself in the chest with the clenched fist DOES NOT prove you’re a tough guy! OK, morons? It just proves you probably had a traumatized childhood so you’re constantly showing off your (real or not) ‘power’ to tell others they better not mess around with you. Pau is a normal, decent guy and doesn’t need all this getto crap so that ‘brothers’ would consider him tough.

Finesse and Soft are to diffetent words, Gasol is a cerebral player, just because he’s not going “Blake Griffin” towards the rim doesnt mean he’s soft. He without a doubt handled Garnett in the Finals last year, who is one of the physical and intense players in the league. If you label Gasol soft then you can very much say the same about Amare, I mean he’s not averaging a double double, so is he too soft to go down low and bang on the boards, just because you dominate the game mentally doesnt mean your soft and just because you throw yourself at the rim all game doesnt mean your physical. Case closed.

So, how come, amare calls gasol soft if he’s a better defender than him, and a better rebounder (and has better bb IQ… that’s just a bonus :D). And about perks, great “role player” (but just that), criticizing an All-Star… should get his mouth shut and get his game up in other areas before attacking someone who is clearly a “way better” all-round player than him and by no means “soft”.

How can Perkins called Kobe soft? Kobe through the past 3 years has played through broken fingers, a knee injury, shoulder injury, sprained ankles and made the finals 3 years in a row and 2 championships in a row. If that’s not tough, then i guess no one in the NBA is tough. Gasol may not be the strongest player but he battles out there and makes up for it with his skill. Amare and Perkins are just hating because they lost. HATERS GONNA HATE!

like ealier said, you dont have to be a thug or nuisance to be a great player and Pau is just an example….. unlike in the case of Bosh where we all know he is trying to be tough and he got called on it by Durant…. I just think Amare should focus on his game, he doesn’t even average as much rebounds as Pau- despite having great rebounding players like Bynum and Odom on the team.

Gasol is not soft. Not anymore IMO. But since he had that nature, sometimes he plays like that. So I guess we can say he is not constantely though like Perk, or Dwight. Even Bynum and Lamar sometimes look soft. I’m a Lakers fan and I just hate when these three look soft. But they really aren’t. In order to shut the critics, they need to avoid looking soft in some games: have a bad game but be aggressive.

pau is not soft even if he was who cares ? he’s beeen a great contribution to the lakers he’s helped take them to TWO nba finals two years in a row. he gets more rebounds then amare and kendrick perkins he;s probaly just jelous because he doesnt have any rings on his fingers

they watch the lakers like hawks because they are closet fans, they know they’re the best but wanna point out little insignificant flaws even if we went undefeated we wouldn’t of gotten any props, so dissapointing, but we will three peat no matter what

the problem is we were peaking too soon and the team notched it down. its hard when you have as much talent as our team…we dont want to burnout on meaningless games even though i felt we should have come with a little more energy last night i understand completely why we would take it down a notch again. can burn the jet fuel just yet….still got some diesel for the long haul left. then hit the afterburners….we’re the only team in history that has the ability to turn it on and off at will…people should have learned by now. But i will say Kobe had an awful game last night….its hard to say hes not playing possum either though. hard to tell with our purple and gold.

So where was this criticism when the lakers had their nine game winning streak? It’s always the same story with the laker haters. They nagg at every laker mishap and then shut up in the playoffs when the lakers win another title.

@rune in 08 Boston killed LA game 6 was an annihilation. the only reason LA won last season beacause they got a LOT of help from the refs. They shot more FT’s in every game not to mention 20 plus in the 4th quarter of game 7. Look like LA will need to buy the refs again this season if they meet Boston. KG was 60-70% last season, LA had home court and they still needed help from the refs. LOL Boston will win in 6 games vs LA. Banner 18 this season

any of you guys who use last night’s game as proof that lakers won’t win it this year are retarded. like beyond a doubt retarded. so what they had one bad game, utah had lost 8 straight they NEEDED that victory. gordon hayward is gonna be a good player and it was good to see him step up, but the lakers are going to win it this year no question. they will be firing on all cylinders every playoff game, and there is no team in the league that can beat them 4 times. once? twice? maybe. but 4 times? hell naw

No one will beat the Lakers in a 7 game series…PERIOD! Miami won’t amke it out of the east, Boston lacks depth at the post, OKC plays hard but always falls short, San Antonio…..HAS NO CHANCE IN HELL, Orlando…been there crushed that. Lakers play up to their competition and turn it up in the playoffs. Only all the Laker haters will be upset when they get ring #17.

i don’t get it, how come alot of people hate the lakers, admit it or not, they’re a complete team, they’re tough with the presence of artest and barnes, everyones got attitude, gasol is a great player, he’s probably in the top 5 big man of his generation, theres a great probability that the lakers will be in the finals, they got experience and phil is a great coach, he knows how to tear down the defense, i would like to see a lakers vs celtics or lakers vs bulls, if not maybe a OKC vs bulls…

So sick of these players calling Gasol soft. This is basketball! it is a sport of skills, movement, quickness. Some have to be TOUGH, but only those who don’t know how to play basketball. He is the most skill 7’00 in the league as simple as that. I agree with one comment here. Kareem Abdul Jabbar wasn’t “tough” physically but he was -in my opinion- the best center ever, and tought mentally.
Stop the fullishness Amare and Kendrick and look at to what you can do…not much so far.

@Tom simply put Amare is better Offensively but Rebounds & D I give Gasol the edge, not by much but Gasol has that on Amare.@rune dude have you seen Amare making 3’s this year? His 15-20 foot shot is better than Gasol even though Gasol has a great mid-range shot. Amare is better on Offence.

dude Amare is a great player, but hes not on Gasol’s level. period. let him earn and ring and then we can talk. besides Amares game is actually 2 dimensional compared to Pau’s. Hes nowhere near the shooter Pau is, and once defenses close down on him in the post he becomes even more limited. can amare hit consistent 20 footers with a 6 10 – 7 hand in his face? right…i didnt think so either.

thats big talk for someone whos team is just getting worse since they got anthony and billups, maybe he should stop looking at the gameplay of others and focus on his own cause right now it looks like he will be knocked out in the first round of the playoffs…………

How can you say that he is soft…I mean look at Kevin Durant it is said that he cant even bench over 95 pounds and he is in the NBA. Kevin Durant is the top scorer in the NBA right now and averages 20-30 points a game. Basically you don’t have to be physically tough to be an athlete you just need skill and know how to use it on the court.

KD is a small forward/SG basically a swing man so he don’t have to be a so called tough type of player. If your a OKC fan you know KD is a tough player. He drives aggressively and get to the FT line but his skill level allows him to do these things.

Pau is soft. very soft. He is a good player who is very skilled, but for his height he should never take a jumpshot… EVER he is not dirk. and if he wants that soft label to go away then maybe he should stay in the post and work HARD. Amar’e is right and has every right to say that since Amar’e gets beat up on a consistent basis, is about 3 or 4 inches shorter than gasol and still dunks on everybody on a consistent basis. yeah he has no rings. but Pau would have no rings if he didnt have Kobe lamar bynum or artest either. and @ Shaan … amare would destroy pau in a game of one on one just for the simple fact he is so much quicker. but thats beyond the point. I like gasols skillset. but there are certain times when he needs to be tough toughness ( and defense) wins championships but Kobe and artest can’t be the only tough guys anymore because teams will exploit that. but whatever idc who wins because my Blazers and Knicks arent going anywhere lol lets go Cavaliers LMAOO (JK)

Do you know how dumb you sound??? Every player should have a jumpshot! Not be a one dimensional slam dunk machine…Why do you think guys like D.Howard get shut down in the postseason when the refs allow play to be more physical?? Its because they dont have enough skills to make the D guard them everywhere on the floor. Besides he makes those shots! Not having SKILLS does not add toughness!!

@Driz, dunks and other shots within the the 3-point arc scores the same (2 pts.) so, does a skilled Power Forward need to bother dunking a lot when he doesn’t need to? you’re funny, maybe when GASOL and STOUDAMIRE goes on a one-on-one, STOUDAMIRE will have a problem making shots and getting rebounds. i want to see it when that happens.. hehe

you’re an idiot. why bother to post when you nothing of basketball. Pau is the best shooting big man since Kareem. thats his game. hes not a legit center hes a power forward. power forwards are entitled to shoot if its in their repetoire. now go back to bb school. dismissed

stoudemire has no right to say anything cuz he aint in the top5 in rebounding and blocks and has 0 rings.

rather than perkins who has the full right to talk smack about gasol, cuz he has toughness and perkins can be an anchor of any tems defense. I agree gasol is still soft. if he wants to prove he aint soft he must be in the top 10 in rebounds, blocks, and points.

The player who has the most toughness on the lakers is only bynum. BYnum is the MOST UNDERRATED PLAYER ON THE LAKERS!!!!! PERIOD!!!!! (along with lamar odom too, but he is soft too at times).

According to what your qualifications are every player in the league is soft. Pau is #6 in boards, top 15 in blocks with 19ppg…But he could definitely play more aggressively. Wouldnt hurt to knock somebody on their a** every now and then! But hey…Thats why we have guys like Fish, Artest, and Bynum.

all these people saying their comments here are false. before even saying every stat that you have to say please check out the stats here at nba.com. but anyways stoudemire and perkins just wants publicity. they both are victims of the lakers the past year. call pau soft, but he’s the best forward/center in the game offensively because he has a ton of moves on the post and on the wing and second best to dwight howard who has a phenomenal MVP year. let’s see what happens, when the lakers are once again champs, amare ousted in the 1st round and perkins thought of “BEAT LA” would just be a dream that would never come true.

to make a player not soft they gotta be in the top 10 in rebounds points and blocks? so basically the only person in the entire league who isnt soft is what dwight howard?
gasol is in the top 10 in rebounds and to ask for that to make a player not soft is asking a lot lol

Man i could throw about 10 starting centers/power forwards who are softer than Gasol. I respect Perkins but Amare?! you call the man who beat you just about a year ago and you call him soft?! What do you call yourself then? Man, it doesnt matter if he’s soft. he can do a really quick spin move and get to the basket almost anytime he wants. Gotta respect Pau. (except when he cries out to the ref asking for a foul after he misses a shot)

pau definitely isn’t soft but even if he is, SO WHAT ?? it’s a friggin team game and involves more than just brawn. not a one on one pickup game or something! and even in that, pau’s skills would probably beat amare. what a whiner ! at the end of the day he’s getting the rings. clearly these players want to equate a great skillset and high ball iq with softness. what a pity!

I agree with Perkins. Phil is full of himself, but with obvious reasons. I really hope they don’t win a championship this year so he can shut up and retire. And Pau Gasol is soft from what I see on TV but still a very great player.

No argument about that Pau over Perk. Like I said he seems soft but is still a great player. Same with Bosh(not as much as Gasol), and yes I too am a Heat fan. But for Phil he’s just too arrogant for my taste. Greatest Coach ever? In winning maybe, but Red is number 1 and then Pat in my book. Phil got Jordan and them saw the same talent in Kobe and knew what he could do with that kind of player. Might not be luck but it’s hardly because of how good he is.

LAKERS VS.BULLS IN FINALS!historic for Phil Jackson.He won the 1st 2 three peat with bulls by winning title no.1 vs.Lakers in 1991,won the last 2 three peat with Lakers ending his title no.12 vs.Bulls in 2011.IS THIS A COINCIDENCE!

I agree….Lakers Bulls in the Finals for our 3peat. I’ve been reading these post and it’s pretty interesting someone said Kobe cant shot. When you hate on a team you should do it with facts, you just sound silly when you make up stuff. As far as Pau is concerned, yes he may not be the guy that will make a hard foul, but everytime i watch a Laker game( which is all of them) he works hard. I would however like him to jump off the ground sometimes to block shots. Hey if pau is soft, we beat Celtics (KG) in the finals, we beat Orlando(Dwight Howard), and we will if neccessary beat the Heat….. so i’ll take SOFT!!!

You didnt beat KG on two legs dont kid yourself. KG was out half the season and he couldnt jump. He was missing DUNKS all last season… Now he is back but Bynum is a freak. Pau is no KG but Kevin cant handle Pau + Bynum. Celtics need Shaq to compete

what if lakers dont make it or bulls huh? the cavaliers were first last year and everybody said they are going to the finals and win it but they didnt, didnt they? so you cant predict something that you are not sure of watch whats going to happen in the finals then you can talk.

Wat does playin defense have to do with being tough?..Amare jus doesnt try to play d or get rebounds its a lack of effort..Pple say Gasol is soft because he doesnt like contact and is afraid to bang down low

@Andre your correct, I think Gasol is a little soft for his size however his skill level makes up for the lack of toughness. hakeem the dream wasn’t tough he used finess and graceful moves not to mention his presence on the defensive end. Gasol is no Dream but I can say he’s a very skilled big man. Amare really can’t defend Gasol so how can he say anything about him being soft. Maybe he should say Gasol is not a real banger inside with a mean streak.

He is what he is. He isn’t soft but because he doesn’t play like a thug, that doesn’t mean he plays soft. He averages like 1.5 blocks a game, that’s pretty nice and he’s probably the most complete big in the game nowadays, maybe except for Dwight so people need to give him a break.

Im a HUGE Lakers Fan since vlade divac was in the team…i didnt see them winning a championship until Shaq came to town. Anyways i think Gasol IS SOFT and does get intimidated when defense gets tough for him. I feel he shuts himself down and doesn’t look for that challenge. However, he is super skilled and has so many moves, that he is able to create his own shot. What is the Problem? i think he is complacent and doesnt strive to become better. and that kind of rubbed off on some Lakers. My opinion only

Lakers were not #8 before Gasol. The year Kobe was crying and requesting a trade, the other Lakers were offended but STEPPED UP. When Gasol was traded for, the Lakers were arleady battling for the #1 spot in the west.

Gasol definately made them SLIGHTLY better, but they were already good since Bynum was comming up to speed. That said, Bynum has missed tons of games since then with injuries, but Gasol has been rock steady health wise.

After seeing some comments, I got curious to see what LA’s record was prior to Gasol trade and how good or bad they were. Here is what I found:

“The Lakers were one of the NBA’s best teams before the 20-year-old Bynum injured his left knee Jan. 13 against Memphis, coincidentally. Los Angeles had a 28-16 record entering Friday night’s game at Toronto but had lost five of eight since Bynum was injured.”

This means before Bynum got injured (prior to Gasol trade), LA was 25-11. If you extrapolate that to 82 game season, the record would be 57 wins. If you extrapolate the 28-16 record over 82 games, that would be 52 wins. That tells us an interesting story. Basically, after Bynum’s arrival, Lakers were already getting better but they were not a championship caliber team. They would still probably had reached the western conference finals or semifinals but wouldn’t have reached the NBA finals. They were NOT a number 8 team or anything like that when Bynum was healthy. So, yes, Gasol gave what Lakers needed but he was not the only reason Lakers were so good. It is pretty much the trio of Kobe, Bynum and Gasol and if any piece in this trip is missing, Lakers tend to struggle, which makes sense.

At times GASOL looks soft, but for the most part, he’s gotten really tough under the basket. PERKINS saying something doesn’t bother me, but AMARE saying something does. AMARE has no right to call somebody soft. Until his team can match up with GASOL’s, then he can talk. Until then, he needs to STFU and lose in the PLAYOFFS to whatever team they play, whether it be the HEAT or the CELTICS.

Pau Gasol has moments where he tends to look like the “soft” player he was labeled a few years back. Overall, I believe that Gasol has played much tougher the last three seasons. He was very impressive in the Lakers two-peat. I have been a big fan of Amare Stoudamire since his Phoenix Suns days. He has no right to call anyone soft. Although he can score the ball and attacks the rim with a ton of aggression, he doesn’t play defense or grab rebounds. Amare is 6’10 and leaves games with 5 or less boards. Is that considered soft? Or is it a lack of effort? Whatever it may be, Amare is right in the same boat with Gasol…minus the rings.

Have they even try to ask if his Gay.. L.A fans love to ask Bosh if his Gay, now why not ask Gasol if he’s Gay,.. Its very normal in Europe to have a Gay ball player with hair all over his face…lol..even Amare and Perk feels that maybe Pau is touching them and says he’s SOFT!!! LMAO!!!

I aggree Mr. Washington, Gasol sometimes looks soft, because he never complains after calls and doesn’t act like he has something to prove. It’s just talk from Amare to make himself look tougher even though he averages less rebounds (a lot) and has no ring to show off with,… talk talk talk. Without Gasol the Lakers wouldn’t be where they are and if Gasol would be soft, the Lakers wouldn’t be there either!

yea no kidding like next to dwight howard isnt amare stoudemire the most ATHLETIC big man?
he should be pullin down 10+ boards a night and averaging 2 blocks but he just doesnt give the effort
has no right to be calllin people soft, hes just jealous because pau beat him in the playoffs

I always doubt the Lakers to go all the way to the finals this season…even a lot consider them a great team, its way too far the way they play right now than the last two years..after the streak now they lost back to back and the lost with the jazz just tell us how beatable they are..even the rookie Hayward shut off Kobe and the whole lakers even surprise me, and the way gasol play and there defense are getting soft..I will not be surprise if they fall to OKC or Spurs this playoffs… so sad to see the defending champs can’t defend their title anymore…what a pity!!!

you always hate on the lakers every time there’s a post. dude they’ve been to the finals 3 years in a row, and won the last two, don’t say anything until they lose this year then you can talk all the smack you want next year about how they’re not going to do it, but until they lose the lakers are the team to beat.

lakers will 3peat! since allstar break they play very well. hope that someone will beat LA but I can’t see any contenders in a 7 game stretch. and gasol and bynum are healthy right now! who can stop their length???

first of all..ibs obvious that you haven’t been watching enough basketball these past couple of weeks when the Lakers won 10 straight. give me a team right now that can say that they can beat the Lakers in a 7-game series?? you say the spurs??…the spurs are not wat they were in the begining of the season because they’re old, they’re beat up, and they cant keep up with the younger players. you also said the thunders??..you can say they improved their interior but one guy cant stop 2 seven footers..& besides..seems like OKC has gotta get thru denver first and seein the way denver has been playin..they’re on fire. and you sit here talkin about their defense??..they’ve held their opponents to 91 pts/game during their 10-game winning streak..&the only reason why its at 91 and not at 86 or lower is because of the triple overtime against the suns. go ask dallas mavericks who scores over 100pts/game..in which the Lakers held them to 82 pts in the win. so if i were you..iwould learn my facts before you came talkin about the Lakers..im just sayin..=)

I really don’t see how the “soft” label is relevant, it gets thrown around time and again to talk about some of the taller players, yet many times the teams these players play for win the Championship even with those “soft” players on the floor contributing. Pau has Championships, soft or not, Duncan was labelled “soft” many times yet the Spurs still won Championships. Dirk was labelled “soft” yet won the MVP back to back. Until those calling the others “soft” can first win Championships themselves they should reevaluate what the term “soft” means and decide if they want to play “soft” themselves and win a Championship or be called the Most Valuable Player in the League, or play like they perceive themselves as a tough guy and sit at home watching the Finals every June and watch some other “soft” guy win the MVP. Perkins may have the right to make a statement about Gasol and “soft” since the big 3 gave him a Championship, but Amare first needs to learn HOW to play the game and then go out and win a Championship, rather than run his mouth and show the only thing he can win is a Chumpionship.

GASOL is soft, but sowhat? Like many European players, he did not grow up with the US streetball game that toughens most NBA players. But GASOL has a pletheora of moves from 5-15 feet from the basket that makes him a very effective big man on offense – his defense is decent but not great. With Bynum playing MUCH better, the GASOL softness issue is less of a factor. Matchups against Dallas (Dirk) or San Antonio (Duncan) don’t require a lot of toughness from GASOL, but if the Lakers do make it to the finals, he may well get taken by Chris Bosh again, and he certainly is no match for Kevin Garnet of Big Baby. Jakim Noah? Maybe GASOL can handle Noah, but Noah has done a lot more to shake the softness label than GASOL.

Excellent post. Pretty much how I feel about Gasol. But, as a die hard Laker fan, I do get frustrated at times seeing him get pushed around on the defensive end. He sometimes loses rebounds to smaller (but tougher) players even when he has the inside position. And he does ball watching at times instead of going to GET a rebound. He does make up for it on the offensive side, though. Very smooth and hard to defend. Basically, he is the small forward and Lamar or Ron Ron become the power forwards.

They’re still 17-3 after the All-Star break, they’ve got the #2 seed, sure they got about 5 games left with some good teams, teams they beat and will do again, no biggie. Home court is ours unless they play Spurs/Bulls for whatever reason.

yes they are eminently, unquestionably beatable. but i’m sure this dosnt surprise any party, least of all gasol, bryn, and fisher. the simple fact is, kobe cannot shoot, not anymore. gasol’s length has preepted any desire to jump. as for fisher…

people can say whatever they want about gasol, it doesnt mean nutin
hes a two time champion, the best offensive and versatille big man, and his defense might not be top notch but i would like to see any big man gaurd gasol and then we’ll see hoos the soft one on defense; i’ll laugh wen gasol drops 20 and 10 on him
and as for stoudemire hes not one to talk, the lakers are the hottest team in the league while the knicks r fighting to stay in the 7th seed, and he has billups and carmelo so he needs to shut up and worry about his team and not the competiton, cuz he can say gasol is soft as much as he wants but at the end of the day gasol is the much better player and everyone noes it
if gasol is soft then prove it come playoff time until then all critics shut up and watch the playoffs and we will see hoo will prosper and hoo will crumble

i hate the lakers but tht doesnt mean tht i need to say tht about paul, la is playing their best bb of the season (even after losing to utah) but i dont know how stat can say tht because his the one who’s always injurie n can be tht second start to lift a team to the promise land

@jeff, got that right! I’m not a Laker fan also but you got to give credit to the team who has 17-3 after the all star break and a 10 game winning streak. Regarding Pau as soft, c’mon all you haters. as far as I know he is playing great basketball since he moved to LA. Pau doesn’t have to play as the main role, he is surrounded by great teammates. About STAT Amar’e Stoudemire, He’s sure got some nerves to call Pau soft but he cannot even carry Phoenix to the NBA finals and his NY knicks is slipping, he also can’t play defense. The playoff is just around the corner, we will see if Stoudemire can back up every smack he is b****ing around.

Im a Boston Fan…im all for boston to win it all…
but seriously…Lakers has buildup of a championship team…
they have great size…although pretty weak at the point…fisher is still very useful down the stretch…
anytime when u have Kobe…those end of the game moments…anything can happen…
I dont want them to win…but honestly…they can achieve it…

Easy now prix…the Lakers are just easing up on the throttle a little since they’re coming into the playoffs. Name me 1 team you think can beat the Lakers in a seven-game series, and I’ll tell you why that team can’t.

The lakers are easing up on the throttle… it’s true. I think this is coach Phil’s strategy… He is contended that the team will reach top3 of the conference and then go easy to keep his players healthy and come playoffs they will play at a maximum potential… If you watch the past games, this has been the pattern Phil is following since the 90s Chicago Bulls.

Hey PRIX……don’t ever say that Hayward contained Kobe in that game, the rookie playd a good game but he still have lots to learn to shut a player with KB24’s caliber!!! Have you seen the three that Kobe drilled to tie the game? It’s just unfortunate that the ball slips his hands for the winning shot and it happens not only to him but to all great players!!!

Before you go and say that they can’t defend their title take a look at there schedule and say it again. Unlike that whack(VERY EASY) schedule that the spurs had this season. Even Charles Barkley pointed that out. Let’s be real any team in the league is beatable. Look at Miami………… Yea…. LBJ and DWade are some of my favorite player and they CANNOT win a ring without help. The playoffs are a completely different ball game and we will see who will come out on top. LA is a very beatable team playing them one time but doing that four times in a 7 game series is the problem for most teams. People thought after Boston who beat the hell out of LA 3 years ago was gonna go for a 3peat and at that time Boston was considered the “Toughest” team in the league. We’ll see though you just might eat your own words.